Chapter 400 - 348: The Ploy
Chapter 400: Chapter 348: The Ploy
"I’ve known about the Bai family’s plans for a while. And Brother Jun Fan’s intentions... I can see them too." Yang Liu’er bit her lip, her voice dropping. "If it had been Tang Yaxuan, it would have been a done deal. Even if I couldn’t have stopped it, I would have torn her to shreds! But since it’s you, it’s fine. Brother Jun Fan... he’s still mine!"
Xiao Man was speechless. "How do you know Bai Junfan will still be yours? The Bai family has already made up its mind, and Bai Qingyue is a real schemer. There are plenty of other prominent families in Beijing with daughters. Even if things with the Tang family don’t work out, they’ll definitely arrange a marriage with another family. What will you do then?"
Yang Liu’er wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "I’ll do what you said earlier. I’ll make a scene! I’ll go to the higher-ups, to the Women’s Federation, I’ll file a complaint!"
Xiao Man couldn’t help but laugh. "I was just saying. You actually took it seriously? That’s one way to do it, I guess, but it’s a method that will harm you as much as them. If you make a scene and ruin the Bai family’s reputation, Bai Junfan might not forgive you afterward. He won’t want to live a peaceful life with you, and you’ll lose your Brother Jun Fan. And another thing: with the Bai family’s power, they would never let you tarnish their name. Before you could even make a move, they’d probably have you under control. If you overreact, they might even kill you to silence you, you know."
Yang Liu’er’s face darkened. She twisted her handkerchief forcefully, her hands trembling slightly. ’Tang Manman wasn’t just talking nonsense; things like that really did happen! The memories of her past life were as clear as yesterday. She knew what the Bai family was capable of. If it hadn’t been for Bai Junfan, she didn’t know how many times she would have died by now!’
"Then what else can I do?" Yang Liu’er murmured, a hint of despair in her reddened eyes. "Is it... going to be like before?"
"Like before how?" Xiao Man asked casually. She looked down and swirled the soda bottle. ’This stuff is so awful.’ Still, she finished it all, sip by sip.
"Tang Manman, do you believe... that people have past lives?" Yang Liu’er glanced around to make sure no one was listening and spoke in a low voice.
"What did you say?" Xiao Man froze for a second, then watched Yang Liu’er with a neutral expression. "I suppose so. Otherwise, why do the old folks always talk about past lives and next lives?"
Yang Liu’er let out a soft breath. "Before... I don’t know if it was a dream or if it was real, but I feel like I came to Beijing in my past life. Brother Jun Fan brought me here, too. We had a son. When he was little, he looked just like that boy, Weiwei, from the mall. He was so adorable! But the Bai family wouldn’t accept me as their granddaughter-in-law from the countryside, so Brother Jun Fan married Tang Yaxuan. Later... well, a lot of things happened. The strange thing is, you weren’t in that dream of mine. I never even heard anyone mention a person named Tang Manman. And another thing, by the time I got to Beijing, Old Mrs. Tang had already passed away from illness. I think Mr. Tang died at the end of that year... After that, the Tang family basically became your birth mother and maternal grandmother’s domain. Your Uncle Tang never married; he moved into some big compound. Your second uncle’s family moved into the Tang Mansion. Your birth father was always in poor health. Before I died, I heard he was paralyzed and bedridden. Your younger brother got leukemia at a young age. He was cured, but just like your Uncle Tang, he didn’t want to get married. Later, Tang Yaxuan made a phone call that provoked him. He was on holiday and supposed to come back to Beijing, but he turned around halfway and went back to his unit. He ended up getting caught in a lab explosion and died..."
Xiao Man felt her scalp tingle. She never expected Yang Liu’er to be a reincarnator too! ’Then again, it’s not that strange. If I can be reborn, why can’t someone else?’ She just never imagined, from Yang Liu’er’s account, that Wu Xiaowen and Tang Yaxuan had thrown the Tang family into such chaos in their past life. ’Perhaps it’s because I was so against the Tang family that my lawyer never told me any of this in my past life.’
Xiao Man rubbed her forehead and frowned. "I don’t care about your past lives or next lives. Can you talk about something more pleasant? Stop going on about death. Did the Bai family get a happy ending, then?"
Yang Liu’er gave a bitter, sorrowful smile. "However well the Bai family did, it had nothing to do with me. Since you didn’t come back, Tang Yaxuan took your place. Even if she wasn’t officially adopted by Uncle Tang like you were, he still doted on her and spoiled her rotten. Who could blame him? She was the Tang family’s only daughter. She could have anything she wanted. Brother Jun Fan married her, and the benefits were enormous... Tang Yaxuan killed my son, and I died at her hands, too. She had so many lives on her hands, but nothing ever happened to her! I don’t know what happened after I died, but I know in my heart that Brother Jun Fan... he wouldn’t even hold Tang Yaxuan accountable for our son’s death, let alone avenge me..."
"Are you brainless? How can you still be so desperately in love with a man like that?"
Tears in her eyes, Yang Liu’er shook her head. "You’re still young. You haven’t truly loved someone, so you don’t understand these feelings... To suffer for him, to die for him—I have no regrets! Even if I have to live my life over and endure the hardship all over again, I’m not afraid, as long as I can be with him!"
Xiao Man was speechless again. After a moment, she said, "You might be willing, but what about him? He probably saw you as a burden. Deep down, he must have resented you!"
Yang Liu’er’s face went pale. "Impossible!"
"Just think about it, and you’ll get it. You two were husband and wife; you even had a child. But in that ’dream’ of yours, he had to hide your and your son’s identities to marry Tang Yaxuan. That couldn’t have been easy. And then there’s Tang Yaxuan—I know she’s not an easy person to deal with. Bai Junfan must have been tearing his hair out trying to handle her. It’s exhausting just thinking about it, right? So, he definitely resented you. It’s just that you grew up together, and you relied on and trusted him. You were like family. No matter what, he had to support you; he couldn’t just watch you disappear. But if someone else were to kill you, he’d have no problem getting over it! After you and your son died, he probably just put on a show of being sad for a little while. Then he’d go on living his life however he pleased, free and unburdened, to chase after his glorious future!"
At this point, Xiao Man had lost any shred of goodwill she might have had for Bai Junfan. Bad-mouthing him now came all too easily.
’I once wondered who Tang Yaxuan married in my past life. To think it was Bai Junfan! No wonder he suddenly showed up in Ping County to visit me, putting on that deeply affectionate act and forcing a confession of love on me.’ Xiao Man was filled with a wave of anger and disgust. ’So he was just repeating a successful sales pitch, trying to pull the same tricks as last time!’
’What a piece of work, that Bai family! They really won’t lift a finger unless there’s a profit in it—bold enough to think of and do anything. Bai Junfan had already gone through a wedding ceremony with Yang Liu’er in the countryside and become her husband, yet he still had the nerve to come after me! If I had really been an ignorant, naive girl with her head full of romance and had been unlucky enough to fall for his trap, wouldn’t that have made me the other woman?’
Xiao Man was filled with rage, but Yang Liu’er felt even worse after hearing her words. Thinking back to her past life, Brother Jun Fan really was just as Xiao Man had described. After that woman killed their son, he just shouted and cursed in anger for a few moments and was sad for half a day. Afterward, he went right back to his life with Tang Yaxuan, and they were still a loving couple. And when she herself died in his arms with a knife in her chest—a knife held in Tang Yaxuan’s hand—Bai Junfan just kept calling her name, showing no sign of hatred for Tang Yaxuan at all.
The tears she had just managed to stop now flowed freely again, like water from a spring. Yang Liu’er cried her heart out.